Patients have warned that they will have to catch two buses to see a GP if a surgery closure in Belfast goes ahead.
Campaigners are fighting to keep the Tullycarnet GP surgery in East Belfast open, after receiving a letter from health bosses revealing plans to shut the facility.
Green Party counsellor Ross Brown has launched a petition in a bid to save the surgery, saying that if the practice closes, vulnerable patients will have to travel further to access healthcare.
The Tullycarnet facility, a branch of the Bridges Family Practice, is in a deprived area and has already been cut down to two days a week.
He told Belfast Live: ‘There was £1 million investment in the Bryson Street surgery, the Bridges Family Practice, and as soon as it was finished people were then told the Tullycarnet service is to go.
‘But that’s a two bus journey for people so there’s understandably a lot of anger that people who are in need are just being left out on a limb.’
Practices across Northern Ireland are facing closure due to GP shortages despite a £7 million increase in GP contractual funding.
Pulse has been campaigning to raise awareness of the effects of practice closures as part of the Stop Practice Closures campaign.
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